Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Saturday, November 4, 2023

TV Veg Day

Movie 1 = “Queen Bees” (Ellen Burstyn & James Caan)

Movie 2 = “Bicentennial Man” (Robyn Williams, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt)

Movie 3 = “Stage Mother” (Jackie Weaver, Lucy Liu, Adrian Grenier)

Movie 4 = “Pretty in Pink” (Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, James Spader, Andrew McCarthy)

We watched New Zealand thrash Australia in the rugby league Pacific Championships 30-0!

I am currently watching Australia vs England in the ODI cricket World Cup. 

Talk about a lounge lizard!

My favourite kind of day.

I can’t believe I’ve never seen Bicentennial Man. What a great movie. All of them were great movies and I stayed awake for all of them, not dozing off once! I can’t say the same for Adoring Husband 😴

For dinner I prepared baked honey lemon chicken with baked vegetables (potato, sweet potato, zucchini, tomato) and butter garlic asparagus.

Now I shall fall asleep listening to the cricket.






Nite all.

Friday, November 3, 2023

Double Day

Thursday …

BGWLBH and I had part of the day in The Bay.

I restocked some of my Posca pens (and other Office Works goodies) and Harley’s dog bones. I bought some more losing lotto tickets. Did a grocery shop. Browsed Spotlight, Petbarn, Choice, some boutiques (no purchases!) and discovered that Su Jus has closed for refurbishing until 23rd November.

We battled crazy, dangerous drivers on the road. Every trip into the Bay feels like Russian Roulette these days. People speeding, overtaking on bends and hills and then cutting us off to get back on the road.

My play date with The Motivator had to be postponed because the stars did not align for us today.

It was Taco Thursday thank goodness. So easy.

Nothing else worth mentioning really.

I’m tired.




Nite all.

The Next Day …

Oopsy! I forgot to publish yesterday’s blog post!

So I will add todays and post them together.

I attended a long planned luncheon with my art girls today. The date had been changed many times due to illness, holidays, family emergencies etc and needed to be completed before next Thursday because one of the girls is having invasive surgery.

Seven of us all met at Cafe Balaena at midday. The weather was fabulous, the food was delicious, the drinks strong, the company was wonderful and we had 4 glorious hours together.

To be honest, it was just what I needed for a mental health boost.

This was my French Martini … 

This was us being silly …

There was an 80th birthday party with live music on the other side of the cafe and when the elderly gentleman who was singing selected “Sweet Caroline”, some of the girls from our table (including me)  joined in with all the table banging, sound effects and word repetition.

The next song was Elvis and our rendition of that was pretty special too!

It was funny. And fun.

The cafe closed at 2pm otherwise we probably would have stretched out the afternoon.

It’s been a good day.

Now I’m exhausted.



Nite all.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Quite Relaxed

***Walking along the street in Auckland and saw some graffiti that said "Australia Sux".  Found a spot below it and wrote, "All Blacks nil".***

What did I do today?

My plan was to do art and I sat in my art space for an hour but got distracted by other things so I gave up and moved into the lounge room with Adoring Husband.

BGWLBH spent the day in The Bay.

Adoring Husband went for a drive to collect the FROG box while I napped on the couch.

I cooked honey lemon chicken Maryland for dinner with baked potato in their jackets, sweet potato, charred zucchini and steamed beans.

Harley and I napped for two hours this afternoon!

I received a very long voice mail from my kids’ father who I haven’t spoken to for 20 years. Weird. Unexpected. I won’t be returning his call.

Time for more sleep now.






Nite all.

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

What a Day

I have mostly avoided our shopping centre whenever possible for the last couple of years. I usually send Adoring Husband or BGWLBH for our emergency shopping needs and most of our meat comes from our local butcher.

To be honest, I don’t want to run into people I know because I have felt, for want of a better word, “unwanted” or “intolerable” or even “unwelcome” by most, and as a result I’ve become a bit of a hermit.

I’ve created an oasis at home where I can spend time with my dog, swim in my pool, work on my art, cook in my kitchen, hibernate in my bedroom or binge watch anything I like in the lounge room. 

I rarely need to leave my house but I push myself to join BGWLBH in The Bay as often as possible because I don’t want to put myself in a reclusive rut.

Anyway, today after meditation and QiGong, I had to ride to the butcher for dog food and our dinner.

I stumbled upon a like minded close acquaintance who I hadn’t seen for about a year and she told me that her husband had passed suddenly from myocarditis (caused by the covid vaccine) in August AND that her male neighbour had spent months in and out of hospital with the same issues also triggered by the vaccine.

She is now following a large group of international medical professionals who, because of the prevalence of these deadly conditions, are travelling to different countries attempting to get governments to recognise and acknowledge this very serious problem and make the public aware.

Unfortunately the legal ramifications are such that governments will deny deny deny.

It will all come out in the wash when it’s too late for innocent victims to seek justice.

We chatted for about 30 minutes before I even found my way into the shop.

Next I ran into another close acquaintance whose Dad has been diagnosed with dementia and we talked about how it is affecting the family. There was another 25 minutes indulging in deep and meaningful conversation.

Before I was able to climb on my trike to head home, I was stopped in my tracks by one more close acquaintance whose husband has recently been given a potentially fatal diagnosis and is now undergoing invasive treatments requiring much travel.

So many heavy, painful stories and if that comes from just three people I know, it’s understandable why the energy levels in town are so low right now. I can think of five others I know who have recently undergone invasive surgeries or treatments for serious conditions.

Age SHOULD NOT automatically mean negative health issues. What the hell is going on?

So on a rare outing for me to our local shopping centre, I did not run into anyone that I’ve been avoiding bit I did hear some very confronting and upsetting stories from others on a day that has been a bit unsettling for me anyway.

Today would have been my first born (Jamie’s) 45th birthday. A little tougher than usual, probably because I’m not feeling mentally and emotionally strong right now.

Ugh.

So that’s my story for the day.

It started with some confronting meditation (which I LOVE) that cleared some stuff followed by soothing QiGong and then a 2 hour session with The Gypsy.

It has been a full emotional day really.

I baked honey soy chicken thighs for dinner with boiled potatoes in their jackets and garlic asparagus and beans.

Now it’s time for bed.




Nite all.

Monday, October 30, 2023

A Bit Sad

 I feel so sad about Matthew Perry.

“Friends” is always my GO TO when I’m looking for something light to watch, something to kill time, something for a laugh or something that helps me relax and unwind.

I have the Friends trivia game, a Friends coffee cup and the complete boxed set of Friends dvds for when I can’t find it on any of the streaming platforms. I follow lots of Friends FB pages and I love to see their quotes and memes pop up on my feed every day.

Like many people in this world, the cast of Friends feel a bit like family to me. They are reliable and comfortable and predictable and soothing and always make me feel good.

They are familiar.

Now one of them is gone. One of my favourites.

All future possibilities of Friends reunions, continuing series’, follow up movies or specials are now wiped. They just can’t happen without Chandler and even using AI wouldn’t work for true Friends fans.

Even though it was short lived, I actually enjoyed Matthew’s version of The Odd Couple and I’ve watched his movies 17 Again, The Whole Nine Yards and The Whole Ten Yards a few times.

I’m a fan.

So seeing this today really touched me …

“I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I'm still working through it personally, but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, 'Will you help me?' I will always say, 'Yes, I know how to do that. I will do that for you, even if I can't always do it for myself! So I do that, whenever I can. In groups, or one on one.

And I created the Perry House in Malibu, a sober-living facility for men. I also wrote my play The End of Longing, which is a personal message to the world, an exaggerated form of me as a drunk. I had something important to say to people like me, and to people who love people like me.

When I die, I know people will talk about Friends, Friends, Friends. And I'm glad of that, happy l've done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun of my struggles on the world wide web...

but when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people.

I know it won't happen, but it would be nice."

~Matthew Langford Perry

(August 19, 1969 - October 28, 2023)


My day was uneventful. Lots of Harley love.

I have an early start tomorrow with meditation and Qi Gong so sleep time for me.



Nite all.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Slow Sunday

No art was done by me today.

BGWLBH created some beautiful art that I cannot share here.

I watched the movie “Jaws” and a fluffy tear jerker Christmas movie.

Played with Harley in stints that added up to 100 minutes.

It was another windy gusty day.

Heard some sad news about a friend who passed this weekend. Sending love and hugs to his wife, The Welsh Wonder, who has adored him, loved him and cared for him with her whole being for many decades. It’s a tough road ahead for her.

More sad news about the actor/comedian Matthew Perry who passed over the weekend aged 54. 

That one has us all questioning our mortality.

Bangers and mash for dinner.

Time for sleep.







Nite all.

Windy Weekend

Slowly but surely …

It was crazy windy today so I chose to stay at home - except for this afternoon when Adoring Husband and I picked up our regular egg order from the Happy Hippy.

We watched a very LONG Justice League movie and this evening we watched both the Rugby League AND the World Cup cricket where Australia was playing New Zealand.

Australia won both events but only JUST in the cricket!

It’s time to sleep now.






Nite all.